Carefully authored by Justine Pila, this significantly revised and expanded third edition of Catherine Seville's classic text, presents a thorough and detailed treatise on EU intellectual property (IP) law, taking into account the many developments in legislation and case law since the second edition. As well as setting out the legal framework for the main IP rights - copyright, patents, designs, trademarks, and related rights - the book examines the enforcement of IP rights, and the relationship of IP with the EU's rules on the free movement of goods and competition. It also addresses the increasingly global exploitation of IP, while harmonisation remains partial, even at the EU level. This authoritative reference work is a rigorous and precise account of these complex and technical fields. It will be an essential resource for both practitioners and scholars in the field of IP. Key Features: Significantly updated and expanded since the second edition Precise and eloquent examination of all IP rights in the EU Coverage of the interaction between EU, National and International laws A key reference work for practitioners and academics

The purpose of this book is to explore the key substantive, methodological, and institutional issues raised by the proposed unitary EU patent system contained in EU Regulations 1257/2012 and 1260/2012 and the Unified Patent Court Agreement 2013. The originality of this work lies in its individual contributions and uniquely broad approach, taking six different (historical, constitutional, international, competition, institutional and forward-looking) perspectives on the proposed patent system. This means that the book offers a multi-authored and all round legal appraisal of the proposed unitary system from experts in patent law, EU constitutional law, private international law, and competition law, as well as leading figures from the worlds of legal practice, the bench, and the European Patent Office. The unitary patent system raises issues of foundational importance in the fields of patent and intellectual property law, EU law and legal harmonization, which it is the purpose of the book to engage with. This is a work which will enjoy wide and enduring interest among academics, policy makers and decision makers/practitioners working in patent law, intellectual property law, legal harmonization, and EU law.

With a particular focus on intellectual property, this work explores some of the key methodological and institutional issues affecting the development of European private law. Leading experts consider seven key topics, furthering understanding of the impact of Europeanization on the substance and quality of law, the process of law-making in a Europeanised system, and the requirements for a truly "European" legal order. The work begins by looking at the making of European Intellectual Property law, covering models of European harmonization, the pursuit of harmonization to date, and the creation of the European intellectual property courts. It goes on to examine the impact of European IP law, covering the impact of constitutional rights and values on intellectual property, the impact of general EU law on intellectual property, the relationship between European and national courts, and European legal methodology. Using intellectual property as a case study in private law Europeanization, the work generate insights of relevance and application within the fields of intellectual property and private law generally to help develop a European legal methodology.

The Requirement for an Invention in Patent Law provides a critical analysis of legal conceptions of the invention in UK patent law and under the European Patent Convention. Dr Justine Pila brings to this text her extensive experience in intellectual property law.
A central theme of the book is that the requirement for an invention, properly construed, sets the boundaries of the patent system in two ways. The first is by defining the categories of subject matters capable of supporting a patent, and the second is by restricting the protection conferred by a patent to individual subject matters conceived qua inventions. In serving these functions, the requirement for an invention helps to fulfil the public benefit objectives of the patent system by mediating the balance struck by patents between individual patentees and the public.
This book offers an analysis of legal conceptions of the invention in UK patent law and their development from before the first patent legislation of 1623 through the patent system's recent phase of Europeanization. It includes a detailed study of the contemporary (EPC) requirement for an invention and its construction by the European Patent Office, and an analysis of the legal and policy issues which that construction raises. It also places the UK and EPC law in its interpretive context, including its international statutory context, and offers a detailed account of international law-making in the field of patents.
The Requirement for an Invention in Patent Law is an indispensible reference text for students and academics of intellectual property law in general and contemporary patent law in particular, and will appeal to anyone interested in Europeanization, international patent law and harmonization, and the history of the UK patent system. Its elucidation of this complex area also makes it an excellent guide for practitioners.

European Intellectual Property Law offers a full account of the main areas of substantive European IP law and a discussion of their wider context and effect. The amount and reach of European law, and decision-making in the field of intellectual property has grown exponentially since the 1960s, making it increasingly difficult to treat European law as an adjunct to domestic intellectual property regimes. European Intellectual Property Law responds to this reality by presenting a clear and detailed account of each of the main areas of substantive EU intellectual property law, situated in the context of both the EU legal system and international IP law, including EU constitutional law, the law of the European Patent Convention 1973/2000, and private international law. It draws selectively on examples from domestic IP regimes to illustrate substantive differences between those regimes and to demonstrate the impact of European law, and decision-making on EU Member States. This unique, thoroughly modern approach goes beyond a discussion of the provisions of European legal instruments to consider their wider context and effect. European Intellectual Property Law is the ideal guide for any student wishing to gain a full and critical understanding of the substantive European law of intellectual property. Digital formats This second edition is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats. - The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with functionality tools, navigation features, and links that offer extra learning support: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks

We live in an age in which expressive, informational, and technological subject matter are becoming increasingly important. Intellectual property is the primary means by which the law seeks to regulate such subject matter. It aims to promote innovation and creativity, and in doing so to support solutions to global environmental and health problems, as well as freedom of expression and democracy. It also seeks to stimulate economic growth and competition, accounting for its centrality to EU Internal Market and international trade and development policies. Additionally, it is of enormous and increasing importance to business. As a result there is a substantial and ever-growing interest in intellectual property law across all spheres of industry and social policy, including an interest in its legal principles, its social and normative foundations, and its place and operation in the political economy. This handbook written by leading academics and practitioners from the field of intellectual property law, and suitable for both a specialist legal readership and an intelligent but non-specialist legal and non-legal readership, provides a comprehensive account of the following areas: - The foundations of IP law, including its emergence and development in different jurisdictions and regions; - The substantive rules and principles of IP; and - Important issues arising from the existence and operation of IP in the political economy.

The purpose of this book is to explore the key substantive, methodological, and institutional issues raised by the proposed unitary EU patent system contained in EU Regulations 1257/2012 and 1260/2012 and the Unified Patent Court Agreement 2013. The originality of this work lies in its individual contributions and uniquely broad approach, taking six different (historical, constitutional, international, competition, institutional and forward-looking) perspectives on the proposed patent system. This means that the book offers a multi-authored and all round legal appraisal of the proposed unitary system from experts in patent law, EU constitutional law, private international law, and competition law, as well as leading figures from the worlds of legal practice, the bench, and the European Patent Office. The unitary patent system raises issues of foundational importance in the fields of patent and intellectual property law, EU law and legal harmonization, which it is the purpose of the book to engage with. This is a work which will enjoy wide and enduring interest among academics, policy makers and decision makers/practitioners working in patent law, intellectual property law, legal harmonization, and EU law.

Despite a rich academic literature in the field of intellectual property (IP), there has been little conceptual analysis of the subject matter that IP rights protect, and in reflection of this, little attention paid to the meaning of the terms used to denote those subject matter, including 'invention', 'authorial work', 'trade mark', and 'design'. This book offers such an analysis, the first of its kind, with the aim of furthering understanding of each IP regime and of IP in general. By means of a nominal word:thing definitional exercise, it studies the terms in question with reference to their recent use by IP legal officials in order to offer a conceptual understanding of the objects that they denote. The analysis proceeds in three main stages. At the first stage, the context in which the relevant terms fall to be defined is considered, with a particular focus on the nature, aims, and values of IP rights and systems. At the second stage, a theoretical framework for thinking about the subject matter protectable by IP in general is proposed, and certain focal questions for understanding such subject matter are derived. And finally, at the third stage, officials' use of the legislative terms that denote the subject matter protectable by IP regimes are considered in detail and the results of that consideration used to answer the focal questions. The result is a definition of each of the terms with reference to the objects that they denote, with a particular focus on the categories and properties of the subject matter protectable by each IP regime, the methods by which those subject matter are individuated within each regime, the relationship between each subject matter and its concrete instances, and the manner in which each subject matter and its instances is known.

Lord Leonard Hoffmann remains one of the most important and influential English jurists. Born in South Africa, he came to England as a Rhodes Scholar to study law at the University of Oxford. After graduating from the Bachelor of Civil Law as Vinerian Scholar, he was elected Stowell Civil Law Fellow of University College. There followed an extremely distinguished judicial career, including 14 years as a member of the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords (from 1995 to 2009). In 2009, Lord Hoffmann returned to the Oxford Law Faculty as a Visiting Professor. In this volume, current and past colleagues of Lord Hoffmann from the University of Oxford examine different aspects of his jurisprudence in diverse areas of private and public law. The contributions are testament to the clarity and creativity of his judicial and extra-judicial writings, to his enduring influence and extraordinary intellectual breadth, and to the respect and affection in which he is held.